MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have – so far – defined their journey and their existence. This time out we talk to Tunji Balogun, Chairman & CEO of Def Jam Recordings. The Key Songs… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
Many music execs spend a good chunk of their early years looking for a track or, ideally, an artist, that will not just help advance their career but – on a more basic level – put food on the table.
When Tunji Balogun signed K Camp and had a hit with the Atlanta rapper’s Comfortable in 2015, it not only put food on the table – it paid for the table to put food on.
Explains Balogun: “I actually helped write the chorus and arrange the song [so] I ended up getting my only really significant BMI check for it.
“This was when my wife and I were flat-broke, and we bought a dining room table with that check… every time we see K Camp, she’s like, ‘You bought our dining room table!’”
Comfortable sits just over halfway in Balogun’s list of Key Songs, all of which speak either to his influences, his experiences, or his success.
It is perhaps the pivotal pick – marking the transition from the songs that made him to the songs he helped make.
Comfortable was released in 2015, just as Balogun’s time at Interscope was coming to an end and he was joining RCA, where he would eventually become EVP of A&R.
In 2022 he returned to Universal, as Chairman & CEO of the legendary Def Jam label, the latest highpoint in a 21-year career that has seen him sign and work with artists including Bryson Tiller, Childish Gambino, Goldlink, Khalid, and Wizkid.
Some of those are represented in his Key Songs playlist – something that he didn’t find too taxing to pull together. “Honestly, I did it 20 minutes ago in the Uber and it probably took me about 10 minutes in total.”
That isn’t, however, because he was rushing. He wouldn’t pick a different nine if he was asked 20 minutes later. This was another kind of easy.
“These are the songs that formed my worldview as a music fan, so they’re not hard for me to remember and talk about, they’re right at the front of my mind…”
1. Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On (1971)
It’s a perfect song. It’s extremely well written. the instrumentation is incredible.
It’s a song that my dad used to play a lot when I was a kid. In fact that whole album, and pretty much the entire Marvin Gaye catalog was getting spun in my dad’s car.
He’s one of the artists who was a major building block of my fandom. This particular song is not only from what I consider to be the greatest album ever made, but it also has such a powerful message. It’s a 50-year-old song that’s still relevant and still speaks to what we’re going through and what life is like today.
“Everything about it is perfect – the lyric, the melody, the vocals, the instrumentation, the production, the mixing, the concept.”
Everything about it is perfect – the lyric, the melody, the vocals, the instrumentation, the production, the mixing, the concept: it is just an incredible piece of artistry.
I love songs that speak about the human condition and what it’s really like to live in this world. Those songs are becoming rarer and rarer, but this is definitely one of my favorite examples.
Marvin Gaye’s career is an incredible example of an artist who grew into someone capable of something as powerful as this, having started out as someone who sang pop songs, dance songs, love songs – all of which are amazing, by the way, perfect Motown songs.
But he evolved and he followed his own vision, the ultimate example of which is the What’s Going On album, his magnum opus.
2) Michael Jackson, Human Nature (1983)
Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the first album that I fully obsessed over.
Human Nature isn’t one of the biggest hits or most well-known songs on the record, but it’s more introspective and honest about life.
I remember it being one of the first songs that I was curious about lyrically and asked questions about.
“It’s just a really beautifully written song.”
I knew what Thriller was about, I knew what Beat It was about. I could kind of figure out what Billie Jean was about. But with Human Nature, I was like, ‘What is he talking about?’ Because he speaks in these sort of metaphors, and talking about ‘electric eyes are everywhere’, and he’s using the city as a character in the story. It’s just a really beautifully written song.
Michael was the first artist I loved and I know all his songs. It was really hard to pick one, and I wouldn’t even say that this is necessarily his best. But it is a song that meant a lot to me from an album that meant a lot to me.
3) Outkast, Rosa Parks (1998)
Outkast are my favorite rap group. I think they’ve made five classic albums.
This [Rosa Parks] is also one of my favorite music videos of all time. It’s so colorful and expressive, and it was kind of the moment when André stepped into a more left-of-center style and approach.
That album [Aquemini] just blew me away. I was 15 years old when it came out, and it was just so creative from start to finish.
“You can still see and hear the influence of what they were able to do in a lot of artists today.”
This particular track is so full of energy and life. The verses are incredible. The hook is super-catchy, but also not very straightforward, which I like – it was something I had to decipher to even understand what they were talking about.
They’re both incredible MCs with completely different approaches and techniques. Big Boi is the game spitter, had incredible flows. André was like the thinker, someone who was really interested in expanding what was possible for an MC at the time.
You can still see and hear the influence of what they were able to do in a lot of artists today.
They expanded the boundaries of the sound and scope of hip-hop. They’re legends to me.
4) Jay-Z, Grammy Family/Corporate Takeover Freestyle (2006)
This isn’t a track, it’s a Jay-Z freestyle from 2006, around the time Kingdom Come came out.
It’s either called the Grammy Family Freestyle or the Corporate Takeover Freestyle. It was never officially released, but part of the verse appeared on a Coldplay song called Lost later on.
But the best version of it is this terrible quality, recorded-off-the-radio version. I think he was at Funkmaster Flex’s Hot 97 show, and it’s just one of the best displays of lyricism that I’ve ever heard.
Jay-Z is my favorite rapper. And this might be my favorite song of his, even though it’s not even a song.
“It captures a lot of what I’ve been through in my journey as a young black executive, and all the things that you experience in the industry as you’re trying to find success.”
I appreciated it so much when I was a kid because he’s talking about all the things he had been through in the music industry, something I couldn’t relate to at all when it came out. But I had big dreams of getting into the music industry, having success, and climbing the ladders.
He explains his ethos as a businessman while rapping at a 100-out-of-100 level. He’s just so cocky and sure of himself. It’s just an incredible display of everything I love about hip-hop.
It’s not on DSPs, you can’t buy it anywhere, but to me it’s one of the greatest moments of hip-hop.
It’s a track I always find myself coming back to, especially when I’m going through tumultuous music industry bullshit. It captures a lot of what I’ve been through in my journey as a young black executive, and all the things that you experience in the industry as you’re trying to find success.
Jay Z isn’t just the best rapper, he’s someone who has consistently pushed culture forward. I’m a lifelong fan and I appreciate not just his music, but the lessons I’ve learned from him.
5) Kendrick Lamar, Money Trees (2012)
It’s my favorite song on a classic album [Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City] by an artist I was lucky enough to work with during my time at Interscope.
It’s produced by a good friend, DJ Dahi, whom I’ve known since my teenage years and [with whom] I collaborated on songs when we were kids.
So it’s just a crazy sort of convergence of my life and my career, and it’s also such an introspective and great song in its own right. The hook is amazing. Jay Rock’s verse is one of the best guest verses ever. And it’s from another album that I think is a classic. It was never actually a single, but to this day I think it’s one of Kendrick’s biggest songs.
“Everything about the TDE story – and Kendrick’s story – is a testament to how important artist development is.”
The most valuable thing I learned from working and being around TDE [Top Dawg Entertainment] was seeing how they really focus on development – they’ve done it repeatedly and they’re doing it now.
I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat and meet all of them really early, when they were working on Jay Rock around 2006-2007. So, I know the work they put in.
Everything about the TDE story – and Kendrick’s story – is a testament to how important artist development is, and really taking the time to hone in on a talented person with a vision and let them tell their story.
Kendrick’s rise has been incredible to watch, and I’m just lucky that I played any small part. I wouldn’t have the career that I’ve been able to have if I wasn’t associated with that so early on.
6) K Camp, Comfortable (2015)
K Camp is an incredible hip-hop artist and super-talented songwriter from Atlanta. He’s also the first artist that I officially signed and got the credit for. And then I was able to run with him when I was at Interscope.
This song, Comfortable, was a hit on his debut album.
It’s special to me because not only was it on the debut album of the first artist that I signed, but it’s also a song that I contributed to. I helped write the chorus and arrange the song.
“I was able to contribute was because the relationship with the artist had gotten so strong that it was comfortable, no pun intended, to do so.”
We were in a house in Brentwood that we rented and set up a studio in. We were finishing his album, with his producer, Big Fruit. The reason why I was able to contribute was because the relationship with the artist had gotten so strong that it was comfortable, no pun intended, to do so.
It’s a line that I would never cross with an artist unless we were actually at a point where we’re actually friends, and it’s gone beyond work.
We probably wrote this song in about an hour, and it’s ended up 2x Platinum. I ended up getting my only significant BMI check for it.
That’s when my wife and I were flat-broke, and we bought a dining room table with that check. We still have it, in fact; every time we see K Camp, she’s like, ‘You bought our dining room table!’
It’s just a great, feel-good, happy, romantic song about being in love.
7) Bryson Tiller, Don’t (2015)
This song changed my life. It also completely changed the sound and energy of R&B at a time when many people thought it was dead.
It came out first – but not as an official release – on October 9, 2014. I know that date because there’s a song on [Tiller’s debut album] Trapsoul called Ten Nine Fourteen about how his life changed when this came out.
He posted it on his SoundCloud but immediately took it down because he didn’t think it was good enough. Then he put it back up, and I think I must have heard it around November 2014.
I was still working at Interscope, but I kind of knew that my time there was coming to an end.
“it’s not a record that I made, but it’s a record that made me.”
I reached out to Bryson and met him really early on. I knew I wanted to sign him, but I didn’t have a label to sign him to because I was exiting Interscope and didn’t have a new job.
Luckily, I was able to get pretty close to him, and eventually sign him to RCA in April of 2015, which is crazy because that’s exactly 10 years ago now.
This is the song that broke the artist that changed my career. To this day, it’s still a song that does really well. If you look at the Apple Music R&B chart, it’s going to be in the top 10. It’s an evergreen, classic R&B song, but with hip-hop in its sonic fingerprints.
If you listen to a lot of the sound and energy of R&B today, a lot of it is descended from this song. Bryson doesn’t necessarily get as much credit as I think he should for helping to shift the energy around R&B and make people believe in it again.
I wasn’t there for the creation of it; I just found it organically on SoundCloud. So it’s not a record that I made, but it’s a record that made me.
8) Khalid, Location (2016)
Location is another song that I found on SoundCloud, this time in early 2016.
Khalid was this high school senior in El Paso, Texas, who was just uploading songs. He had a couple of tracks out before this, but the minute I heard Location, I instantly knew that he had an instinctive understanding of both alternative indie music and R&B, and he was kind of sitting right in the middle.
He was so young and inquisitive. I followed him on Twitter and started talking to him, and he was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re the Bryson Tiller guy!’.
“the minute I heard Location, I instantly knew that he had an instinctive understanding of both alternative indie music and R&B.”
We just immediately hit off, became friends and I was able to sign him. It’s one of the only times in my career where the first thing we put out from an artist just exploded; it just all happened immediately.
We made American Teen, which came out in early 2017. It’s one of my favorite albums that I’ve ever worked on. I think it’s a really timeless coming-of-age album about being young, about finding yourself, and about gaining confidence.
Location was just a really beautiful straight-to-the-heart, soulful song. It’s completely unique, from the production to his approach to delivery, to the timbre of his voice.
It’s truly one-of-one, and I’m super proud that I got to be a part of it.
9) H.E.R. & Daniel Caesar, Best Part (2017)
In 2017 I was working with H.E.R. as an A&R at RCA, and we were making a lot of great music.
Daniel Caesar was just starting to catch his wave. He had the song Get You with Kali Uchis, which was out and bubbling.
He actually hit me up and was like, ‘Do you think I could ever meet H.E.R.?’ I said, ‘Man, you guys should make music together,’ just because they’re both such incredible songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists – and both so imaginative in their writing.
I had been trying for a long time to get them together, and there was one particular day when H.E.R. was in the studio, and the producer left early to work on something else. Daniel Caesar happened to be in L.A. at the time– he’s from Toronto – so it was kind of like stars were aligning.
I contacted him and his managers to see if he could make it to the studio on short notice, and he was there within the hour.
“I sometimes feel like I’m the Forrest Gump of R&B!”
They started playing around on guitars, and those of us who were not part of the songwriting process left the room to go to the lounge and talk for 45 minutes. When we went back into the studio, they had come up with this incredible song.
It was clear immediately that this was a classic, a really tender, beautiful R&B duet; a wedding song, or a song to fall in love to.
I sometimes feel like I’m the Forrest Gump of R&B or something! The fact that I was even in the room to see that start to come together, and I’ve been around for so many other incredible creative moments.
I will never forget that day, that session. It’s a perfect song. It’s a multi-generational song that will stand the test of time; my mom knows that song!
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